Green Bean Casserole is New York’s Ultimate Comfort Food

No matter who you spend Thanksgiving with it's a given that there will  be green bean casserole on the table. Across generations, income levels, cultures, this is the one dish that seems to tie the whole meal together. With only five main ingredients, it's basically foolproof. If you have a kitchen and an oven, you can whip up green bean casserole like a pro. To coin a phrase, this dish is iconic.

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We have one Dorcas Reilly to thank for the dish. She was a chef, homemaker, and inventor. While working at the Campbell Soup Company in their test kitchen. Campbell Soup estimates that the dish hits no less than 20 million tables on Thanksgiving.

Coincidentally, or not, Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup was also created in 1955. It was the first to be marketed as not only a soup, but a sauce as well. Dorcas Reilly got ahold of it, and created the recipe for an Associated Press article. It was initially called "Green Bean Bake" and was printed on soup cans. Internally within Campbell Soup, it wasn't an instant knock down, drag out hit. Reilly persisted, and green bean casserole became known as the ultimate comfort food.

It wasn't originally a dish for Thanksgiving. It was originally meant to be a year round, quick and easy side dish. In the 1960s, Campbell's put the recipe right on the label on the can, and the rest is history. Approximately 40% of Cream of Mushroom soup goes to making the casserole.

Here is the original Campbell Soup Company recipe, unchanged since 1955.